Top Technologies Transforming Customer Service Today    

Customer service is at the heart of any successful business. Customer expectations continue to evolve. Companies must evolve strategies and tools used to meet those expectations. 

55% of customers like self-serve customer service over speaking to a representative.

Technology has become a game-changer in this regard. It offers innovative solutions that improve efficiency, personalization, and satisfaction. So, what kinds of technology can boost your customer experience? Below, we’ll explore several options transforming customer service today as well as explain how they can help your company stay competitive.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning

AI and Machine Learning are leading the charge in revolutionizing customer service. These technologies are enhancing everything from customer interactions to backend processes. They’re making service more efficient and personalized.

• AI-Powered Chatbots: Chatbots have become a staple in customer service. AI-powered chatbots can understand and respond to natural language. They make interactions feel more human-like. They can also handle a wide range of tasks.

• Predictive Analytics: Machine Learning enables businesses to predict customer behavior and needs. ML algorithms can forecast future issues, preferences, or inquiries. This allows companies to proactively address customer needs.

• AI-Driven Personalization: AI helps businesses offer personalized experiences at scale. By analyzing customer data, AI can tailor recommendations and communications. This level of personalization increases conversion rates and customer retention.

2. Omnichannel Support

Customers today expect seamless support across several channels. This includes email, social media, phone, and in-person interactions. Omnichannel support ensures a consistent experience, regardless of the channel a customer chooses.

• Unified Customer Profiles: A benefit of omnichannel support is maintaining unified customer profiles. All interactions get recorded in a central database. This provides a complete view of the customer’s history. It enables more informed and personalized help.

• Consistent Experience Across Channels: Omnichannel support ensures a consistent experience. This is regardless of contact method. This consistency is crucial for building trust and satisfaction. It also allows customers to switch between channels easily, enhancing their experience.

• Real-Time Channel Switching: Advanced omnichannel systems allow real-time switching between channels. A customer might start an inquiry on social media. Then easily continue it over chat. This flexibility improves satisfaction and efficiency.

3. Cloud-Based Customer Service Platforms

Cloud-based customer service platforms are another technology transforming the customer service landscape. They offer flexibility, scalability, and accessibility. In ways that traditional on-premise systems cannot match.

• Scalability and Flexibility: Cloud-based platforms allow businesses to scale their customer service. This is particularly useful for companies that experience seasonal fluctuations in inquiries. Cloud systems make it easy to add or remove agents as well as adjust resources without significant investments.

• Remote Access and Collaboration: The cloud enables remote access. This allows customer service teams to work from anywhere. Cloud-based platforms also facilitate collaboration. They allow several agents to work on the same customer case in real time.

• Integration with Other Tools: Cloud-based customer service platforms can integrate with other tools. This integration ensures that all customer data is centralized. That makes it easier to manage and analyze. It also allows for more seamless workflows.

4. Self-Service Technologies

Self-service technologies empower customers to find answers and resolve issues on their own. All without the need to contact a customer service agent. This improves customer satisfaction. It also reduces the workload on service teams.

• Knowledge Bases and FAQs: Online knowledge bases and FAQs are common self-service tools. They provide customers with easy access to information and solutions. A well-maintained knowledge base can significantly reduce the number of support inquiries

• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems: IVR systems allow customers to navigate a menu of options. They can often resolve their issues using their phone’s keypad or voice commands. Modern IVR systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated. They allow customers to check account balances, schedule appointments, and more.

• Customer Portals: Customer portals enable customers to manage their accounts and access support resources and interact with your company. They enable 24/7 self-service management of many account tasks.

5. Data Analytics and Customer Insights

Data analytics is another powerful tool transforming customer service. By analyzing customer data, businesses can gain valuable insights. These insights include behavior, preferences, and needs. This enables companies to provide more targeted and effective service.

• Customer Sentiment Analysis: Sentiment analysis uses AI to analyze customer feedback. Such as reviews, surveys, and social media posts. This allows businesses to identify areas of concern as well as respond to issues before they escalate.

• Customer Journey Mapping: Data analytics allows businesses to map out the customer journey. It helps in identifying key touchpoints and potential pain points. Using this, businesses can improve customer experience and reduce friction.

• Predictive Customer Support: Companies can use predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs. By analyzing historical data, businesses can identify patterns. They can find trends to show when a customer is likely to need support. This allows companies to offer proactive help.

6. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is another technology making waves in customer service. RPA involves the use of software robots to automate repetitive, rule-based tasks. This frees up human agents to focus on more complex and value-added activities.

• Automating Routine Tasks: RPA can automate routine tasks. Such as data entry, updating customer records, or processing refunds. This speeds up these processes. It also reduces errors. This leads to faster and more reliable service.

• Enhancing Customer Interactions: RPA can enhance customer interactions. It provides agents with real-time information and recommendations. This allows agents to provide more personalized and informed help.

• Reducing Response Times: RPA can significantly reduce response times. Customers can receive quicker resolutions to their issues. This leads to higher satisfaction and loyalty. 

Let Us Help You with a Technology Roadmap

The technologies transforming customer service today offer many benefits. But it’s not always easy to know where or how to get started. Our team of IT consultants can help you build a tech roadmap that makes sense. Both for your business goals and budget.

Reach out to Morefield today to schedule a chat.

Featured Image Credit

This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.

Significant Business Update Unfolds

NEC, one of the biggest names in the telecom industry, announced in May that they will begin phasing out on-premises business phone systems from production. This decision to halt its on-premises PBX services in the United States will be effective March 2026. This pivotal choice signifies a substantial change for users who have long depended on NEC’s robust and dependable systems. NEC has also announced that it will gradually withdraw from the entire on-premises Unified Communications industry toward a full exit.

Factors Influencing the Strategic Shift

The discontinuation of NEC’s on-premises PBX services stems from financial difficulties post-COVID, notably affecting its semiconductor sector. This strategic move aligns with the prevailing industry trend favoring cloud-based Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) over on-premises alternatives.

Implications for Small Businesses

• The transition may pose challenges for small to mid-sized businesses that rely on NEC’s on-premises infrastructure. Nonetheless, embracing change could lead to growth and innovation, despite the initial uncertainties.

Navigating the Journey to Unified Communications

• While transitioning to novel technologies may seem daunting, it presents opportunities for operational refinement and expansion. Unified Communications fosters enhanced collaboration and operational efficiency within organizations.
• The shift towards Unified Communications is imperative for contemporary businesses, offering improved communication channels, client service, cost-effectiveness, and support for remote work.
• With adequate support and technological resources, businesses can seamlessly migrate to while optimizing their workflows and elevating customer experiences.

Assistance from Morefield and Mitel

• Morefield provides tailored solutions and services to facilitate businesses in navigating the Unified Communications transition seamlessly.
• With a rich history of over 75 years, Morefield delivers comprehensive services including unified communications, cloud, managed services and cybersecurity.

What Does This Announcement Mean For Your Business?

As NEC undergoes transformations, businesses are encouraged to perceive this transition as a stepping stone towards future success and reach out on how to best position your organization. Embracing Unified Communications has the potential to propel businesses forward by refining operations and boosting competitiveness in the ever-evolving market landscape. Let Morefield field any concerns about your NEC transition, our experts are ready to help you make smart technology decisions.

Contact us or give us a call at 717-761-6170 today to talk about your best options going forward!

Key Dates Associated With NEC’s Phase-Out Announcement

There are many upcoming dates that business leaders need to keep in mind when it comes to NEC’s recent announcement, including:

• End of New Deliveries on 12/31/24: This will be the latest that businesses can order new products for on-site phone system sales.
• End of Shipment on 3/31/25: This is the latest date that NEC will ship hardware products ordered before 12/31/24.
• End of Service on 3/31/26: This is the date that NEC will end its technical assistance for the above-listed NEC phone systems.
• End of Software Assurance Support on 3/31/26: This is the date that NEC will end its software support for the above-listed phone systems.

Improve Campus and Student Safety with Security Technology

Using Video Security on School Campuses

Prioritizing student safety, teacher safety, and facility safety is a must for schools looking to instill a safe learning environment. Given the prevalence of school-based violence today, school officials shouldn’t wait for an incident to occur before prioritizing security.

To better prepare themselves for any future situation, school safety and security teams turn to video security as a way of reducing campus crime and enhancing visibility into day-to-day activities and operations.

How are Security Camera Systems used on School Campuses?

• Deter Crime on Campus: Security in schools can also safeguard schools from more common, day-to-day incidents. Specifically, school security cameras discourage instances of school-based vandalism, larceny, and assault, as well as many additional types of suspicious or nefarious behavior, by regulating and standardizing school visitor management around the clock.
• Enforce Positive Student & Teacher Behaviors: To reinforce positive student and teacher conduct, many officials depend on cameras. By monitoring footage from security cameras in classrooms and hallways, school security personnel can ensure that proper school conduct is being observed.
• Incident Resolution: Most inter-student conflicts include two opposing accounts of an incident. Cameras give school administrators the ability to consult definitive video evidence of an event. Having cameras in schools can also offer objective video evidence of incidents involving harm or theft in classrooms, hallways, and other high-traffic areas. This footage is used to identify suspects, and serves as compelling evidence during the disciplinary phase of investigations.
• Remotely Monitor Large Open Spaces: For school or campus safety teams at safe educational institutions, increasing situational awareness is an ongoing goal. These schools aim to provide reliable Security for large facilities to ensure school gym, auditorium, parking lot, and playground safety. Ultimately, these schools maintain a level of situational awareness that schools and colleges without Security simply can’t reach.
• Remotely Monitor Entrances, Exits, and Other Blind Spots: Monitoring blind spots such as entrances and exits can mitigate any school safety risks. In fact, the best school safety teams implement 24/7 recording in high-traffic or high-risk areas such as these. By recording all activity during and after business hours, officials are substantially more likely to catch intruders and unauthorized activities.
• Give Parents Peace of Mind: Actively monitoring footage from cameras can reinforce the confidence and trust that parents have in their child’s school, and can give them peace of mind during the day. As a result, proactively monitoring—and even rewarding—positive student and teacher behavior can be an integral part of school safety procedures today.

Must-Have Features for Campus Video Security:

• Ability to Quickly Find & Share Footage: To ensure student safety, being able to quickly access and share footage of time-sensitive events is critical. When emergencies arise, truly safe schools won’t be tied up searching for footage, and law enforcement won’t be held up by it. With centralized footage, the ability to quickly find incidents of interest, and the ability to quickly share this footage with authorities, will give these schools the best chance at quick, safe, and calm emergency resolution.
• Easy Non-Technical User Experience: Installing cameras that require technical fluency substantially limits the role principals, superintendents, and front office personnel can take in monitoring. This places responsibility of footage access and retrieval on school safety and security IT personnel, rather than on the stakeholders who require the footage. This leads to slower incident resolution, overcommitted school IT departments, and—as a result—less-than-ideal safety on campus.
• Low-Bandwidth School Cameras: Improving school safety shouldn’t necessitate reductions to on-campus Internet speed and capability. Security cameras can be significant consumers of bandwidth, which can lead to compromised video quality, limited video storage, and even system failure. It’s important to find school Security cameras so schools don’t have to choose between expensive bandwidth upgrades and child safety in school. In fact, a security solution with sufficiently low bandwidth consumption can even enable bus cameras for school bus monitoring.
• Affordable: Most school officials unfortunately have razor-thin school safety budgets, so it’s necessary to prioritize affordability when searching for a campus safety and security option. Oftentimes, cheaper cameras possess lower camera quality and decreased footage usability, which jeopardizes K-12 and college safety. Instead, officials should consider vendors who offer 10-year product warranties, which make it easy for schools to offset costs of maintenance over time, as well as systems that offer high levels of coverage per camera.

How Education Stakeholders Use School Video Security

Security and Campus Patrol

• Can remotely monitor large areas more effectively
• Can reduce bullying and optimize bullying intervention programs
• Can keep intruders out without stationing security officers at each access point

Principals and Superintendents

• Can see and track what’s happening at each school facility
• Can remotely monitor day-to-day operations, as well as teacher and staff efficiency
• Can use in campus security footage in disciplinary cases and liability claims

Teachers, Students, & Parents

• Can attend school more securely and confidently
• Can conduct campus functions and events more securely
• Can enforce positive behaviors on campus

Final Takeaways: Using Video Security for Campus Safety

From school bus security cameras to national bullying programs inspired by camera footage, there are endless ways Security can serve school officials willing and able to use it. Without Security in schools, K-12 and college campus security teams are risking a lack of visibility and streamlined process.

Put simply, it is this Security visibility that enables efficient, educated incident response—and it is this incident response that enables kids to be safe at school.

America’s Frontline Workers in Crisis

This is a difficult moment for front-line workers. Already overextended, the average American worker is dealing with a new on-the-job concern: they don’t feel safe at work.

It’s hard to blame them. Today we see images of workers being accosted by irate fast food customers, aggressive airline passengers and violent hospital patients. Every hour, two nurses in the United States are the victims of assault at their workplace. Nearly half of hospital nurses reported a rise in workplace violence last year, with a year-on-year increase of 119 percent. Assaults and theft in retail settings have been increasing at a faster pace than the national average, and retail workers are tired of fearing for their safety.

The people who serve in these critical roles, driving our economy and providing a service to the public, make up the vast majority of America’s workforce today. Approximately 70 percent of the U.S. workforce is concentrated in front-line jobs, from healthcare to retail and service sectors, and beyond.

To better understand the state of workplace safety and the emotional toll it takes on front-line workers, Verkada surveyed 1,000 professionals across major industries, including consumer banking, healthcare, retail, and hospitality. Our findings, which are detailed in this report, shine a light on the challenges facing front-line workers today.

Download the full survey here.

Benefits and Limitations of Hybrid Cloud Video Storage

Hybrid Cloud Video Storage

Hybrid cloud security systems use a combination of onboard camera storage with a cloud data storage solution. These systems often provide a wealth of benefits over standard Internet protocol (IP) security camera offerings and give users a greater degree of flexibility than pure cloud cameras—which require a consistent Internet connection consuming large amounts of network bandwidth.

What is a Hybrid Cloud Security System?

Because hybrid cloud systems dramatically decrease the amount of bandwidth required, the system is highly suitable for larger scale deployments that require a multitude of cameras to operate on the same network. This makes the hybrid cloud approach to video security a great option for retail stores, schools, municipalities, manufacturers and other security-conscious organizations that need coverage across large open areas.

How Do Hybrid Cloud Surveillance Systems Work?

Having only recently entered the market, hybrid cloud video storage approaches decade old problems (i.e. storage limitations, gaps in coverage, limited scalability) with a software-first mindset.

• NVR & DVR Camera System vs. Hybrid Cloud Surveillance: By removing the dependency of centralized recorders (i.e. network video recorders), hybrid cloud cameras are easier to install and scale across locations. With solid-state drives built into each camera, there is no worry of losing footage across any entire wing of a building should a local recorder fail. Maintaining a hybrid cloud video security system is also significantly easier than a NVR camera system. With firmware and software updates that deploy across the entire fleet automatically, eliminate the need to conduct timely audits and manual updates.
• Cloud Storage vs. Hybrid Cloud Video Storage: Rather than consuming large amounts of bandwidth by streaming footage continuously to the cloud, hybrid cloud cameras upload only select metadata and activity-triggered footage. As a result, hybrid cloud surveillance solutions are optimal for low-bandwidth situations, as they are able to perform reliably, even over an LTE network. With the added reliability of local storage, hybrid cloud cameras are uninterrupted in the event of network outages, making it more dependable than cloud cameras.

Main Features of Hybrid Cloud Security Systems

Discover some of the main features of hybrid cloud video security and see how they offer enterprise-level businesses the best of both worlds when it comes to security and storage.

• Cloud & Local Video Storage: Traditional security solutions, which depend on a consistent Internet connection or centralized recorders (i.e. NVR, DVR) for all cameras, are always at the risk of losing coverage. However, hybrid cloud cameras eliminate any single point of failure, as they record and store all footage locally on the camera and in the cloud. With this distributed approach to storing video footage, ensure continuous recording and no gaps in surveillance footage.
• Bandwidth Friendly: Unlike cloud camera systems, which continuously upload large amounts of video data to the cloud, hybrid cloud solutions benefit from retaining footage locally while using minimal network data to upload metadata and thumbnails to the cloud. Hybrid cloud surveillance is optimal for use in remote areas, as it requires significantly less bandwidth than cloud camera systems.
• Highly Scalable: Compared to a traditional NVR/DVR solution–which often has a quantity cap on the amount cameras it can support–hybrid cloud surveillance scales with the needs of your business. Since there is no need for a centralized recording device to support on-premise recording, hybrid cloud cameras can be installed without the worry of added infrastructure.
• Easy to Install: Many security vendors offer hybrid cloud camera systems that only require a PoE (power-over-Ethernet) connection to get started. This makes these surveillance solutions particularly easy to implement and well-suited for businesses that need to evolve their video security without having to invest in additional infrastructure.
• Cost-Effective: Many security vendors that offer hybrid cloud solutions provide simple cost breakdowns, making it easy to forecast recurring costs. Rather than unpredictable expenses associated with installation, maintenance, and storage (i.e. operating system updates, maintaining storage servers, costs for technical configurations), simplify total cost of ownership over time with vendors that disclose complete line items and associated costs.

Benefits of Hybrid Cloud Security System

Takeaways About Hybrid Cloud Video Storage

All things considered, it’s worth exploring what a hybrid cloud video security system can provide for enterprise-level businesses. This new approach to storing video footage–specifically for enterprise video security–makes it simple for IT, Security, and Loss Prevention professionals to find confidence in surveillance without worrying about storage limitations or gaps in coverage.